The RSL in WA has announced in its guidelines for the 2020 Anzac Day that services should not include the flying of the indigenous flag, welcome to country or use of Aboriginal languages. To their credit Fremantle RSL has already advised they’re ignoring the guidelines.
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Is Margaret Court involved with the RSL in WA?
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We’re a bit odd over here.
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You poor fellows over there need better quality water in your weir.
That’s a good start.
maybe it doesn’t represent their organisations history or culture, and isn’t relevant to them.
I guess like a flag and anthem isn’t apart of some aboriginals culture cos it doesn’t represent them or their culture.
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Aborigines fought in the wars
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did they say they didn’t ?
Did they say they weren’t going to celebrate soliders of aboriginal decent sacrifices cos they were aboriginal ?
Yer but many many aborigines died fighting under the Australian & British union jack based flags in WWI & II and many other wars.
Aboriginal peoples and their culture IS a VERY important part of our Australian national identity IMO and their history should be part of our history too; their culture should be adopted as a VERY big part of Australian culture (this is changing IMO… slowly though).
Not including their flag in Anzac day celebrations is shortsighted and mean spirited by the RSL and quite frankly insulting to me, and I’m 100% caucasian and have had several relatives KIA !
As far as I am concerned Australia should ditch the old union jack based flag anyway and incorporate the aboriginal flag either partially into a southern cross based flag theme or just adopt the whole flag as ours…the RSL need to update themselves to the 21st century. No one is left from the Boer & WWI wars guys and in those wars the pommie empire just used us colonials as machine gun practice for the enemy.
The sooner the union jack flag goes and Australia becomes a republic the better for mine anyway, and using the aboriginal flag as our our national flag will go some way in apologising for 2 centuries of murder, rape and injustice.
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Bit of a weird one. I get the flag we have is very much front and centre for a veteran.
I would like to think we are all a bit more than flags, and instead fought in wars against oppression and support of democracy.
Certainly think ignoring black fellas goes a bit against that though ethos tho.
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and this is why they are probably doing it.
because you and the like turn it into a politic agenda issue and topic and debate.
whereas is should be an issue about simply celebrating returned serviceman and woman OF ALL the people/nationalities who fought for this country.
you know just like the rsl in vic tried or has tried to get people marching to not wear their football related stuff because it takes away from the point of the day ( in their eyes).
but the side point is, when it suits aboriginal people they trot out the australian flag, anthem, heritage, laws has no historical significance to them and it doesn’t represent their culture, and that’s ok.
but when the same philosophy is followed by perceived white people, they are stuck in the 20th century and that they are mean spirited and every other thing under the sun (no doubt the racist card will get a big run when this story hits the do gooder main stream media exposure).
We’re market leaders at disenfranchising ‘Abos’ here in WA. Welcome to Country and the flying of their flag is a small but important acknowledgment of the previous custodians of where we’re standing right now and shouldn’t be seen by the RSL as a forced concession to some outspoken minority group. Naturally they will find support amongst the usual suspects but if it were put to a vote, the RSL would find themselves somewhere out towards the margins on this.
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Keep it simple. Why do these two days need to be different to everything else this organisation does during the year?
They haven’t made that case. If acknowledgement is exclusionary/insulting to those “who came from a wide range of cultural backgrounds” on those two days it’s the same every other day, surely?
Good ol’ half-pregnant.
If we could export ‘knee-jerkin’ like we export iron ore, we’d be so loaded we could tow Tasmania all the way to Port Phillip Bay just to give you geeks the sh*ts.
Next thing they’ll want sausages in rolls instead of bread. Heathens.
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We occasionally get it right.